Visual Task Force auction hits a new high

Kyle Wells of Turner Sports in Atlanta, browses the framed photographs to be auctioned at the Mackinac Ballroom in the Detroit Marriott Hotel during the NABJ convention on Saturday, August 4, 2018.
The Visual Task Force Auction is an annual event which raises money for student scholarships and programming.
August 3, 2018.
MARTHA ASENCIO RHINE/NABJ Monitor

By ANFERNEE PATTERSON

NABJ Monitor

DETROIT —The Visual Task Force of the National Association of Black Journalists has raised its highest amount of pre-event funding for its Photography Auction than it has since the auction’s inception. This year’s auction will be held today at 1 p.m. in the Mackinac ballroom.

Every year, the annual photo auction displays pictures taken by photojournalists of color as well as donated pictures to raise money for scholarships, equipment and other resources.

Jarrad Henderson, the task force’s president, credited the team’s growth to the auction’s continued success.

“The auction is wonderful and we raise a lot of money every year, but the biggest thing for us is impact,” Henderson said. “How can we help our students get to where they want and need to be?”

The auction has raised more than $1 million in the past 25 years, he said.

“I believe that the growth not only in the organization and willingness to allow the young students to learn from professionals definitely helps the quality of content and how people like it,” Henderson said.

As one of NABJ’s largest task forces, the Visual Task Force was created to provide a venue for visual journalists in the areas of photojournalism, design and informational graphics, broadcast photojournalism and visual leadership for newspaper, magazine, broadcast and online publications.